Compact, stylish and powerful: TOP 5 premium ultrabooks

Xiaomi company not so long ago was busy expanding its range and famously broke into the laptop market. Like most Xiaomi products, their new model Xiaomi Mi Laptop Air 13.3 is a clear contender for market leadership.

And although design is a rather subjective thing, it's safe to say that the laptop looks great. Like the company's previous laptops, Mi Laptop Air 13.3 is made in an extremely minimalistic aluminium case with perfectly even geometric lines and a complete lack of identification marks on the case. Fans of minimalism will definitely be pleased.

In general, if you look solely at the technical characteristics, then Mi Air not only does not lag behind many more expensive ultrabooks, but also surpasses them in some way. Judge for yourself, there is a fingerprint scanner, fast charging, high-quality stereo speakers from a well-known acoustics manufacturer (in this case AKG), the ability to charge a laptop via USB-C, a keyboard backlight and a full-fledged HDMI output, which ultrabook manufacturers often sacrifice. This is not to mention the obligatory thin, light and strong aluminium case for this price segment.

At the same time, Mi Air has very decent hardware: an eight-thread Core i5 of the eighth generation with a maximum frequency of 3.4 GHz, a 256 GB SSD, 8 GB of RAM and a mid-range GeForce MX150 video card, which seems to be not really needed here, but it is unlikely to be superfluous either. .

So what's the catch? In general, there is none. There are only a couple of minor flaws that do not really affect the overall rating. Firstly, it is embarrassing that the laptop cannot be charged via a smartphone charger or with Power Bank. Why then did they add charging via USB-C at all? Secondly, it does not have the most successful cooling system, which heats up both the case and the processor (sometimes it reaches 90 degrees). True, overheating appears only in the case of gaming sessions, in normal mode, Mi Laptop Air 13.3 is kept within the bounds of decency.

Since its introduction in 2015, the bezel-less XPS 13 has become the benchmark for a Windows ultrabook. With the updated model Dell XPS 13 9360, the same story: it does not strike the imagination with its hardware or a set of additional whistles, but at the same time it consistently collects fives with pluses in reviews, where it is again called a reference Windows laptop.

So why is he interesting? The devil is in the details. Firstly, these are the case materials: the lid and bottom are made of aluminium, as before, but the working area is made of plastic and carbon fiber that are pleasant to the touch and are not afraid of scuffs. The build quality is at a high level, even for the premium segment.

Secondly, it is a proprietary frameless display. If for many models framelessness is very relative, then for Dell XPS 13 all three side edges of the screen are thin, like smartphones. Thirdly, it is a diverse set of ports with Thunderbolt support and the ability to charge a laptop through any of them.

Fourthly, it is a durable battery, which, according to the manufacturer, can last about 22 hours. Without exaggeration, this is a fantastic result - with charging you will not see each other often. Add here smaller, but no less useful little things like a convenient charge indicator, a smart fingerprint scanner, powerful speakers with support for Waves MaxxAudio technology and a very comfortable keyboard.

The productive filling completes the picture (new Core i5 with 4 cores + 8 GB of RAM + 256 GB SSD) and an excellent display. The latter has natural color reproduction, high contrast and a large margin of brightness. Well, in the minuses is an unusual keyboard layout with clipped function keys and a rather noisy (by the standards of ultrabooks) cooling system. On the other hand, the noise level will depend on the selected settings and mode of use. The Dell Power Manager utility allows you to fine-tune the operating mode of the processor and cooling system.

After weighing all the pros and cons, it becomes clear why this model is so praised.

In 2017, Microsoft expanded its line of "reference" gadgets in its opinion Surface, adding a new ultrabook to it. The model won some success and a year later the company released a sequel.

The first thing the company pays attention to is the 85% increase in Surface 2 power. Unlike its predecessor, it has an eighth-generation Core i5 and a 256 GB SSD, and the RAM has increased to an adequate 8 GB (was 4). All this allowed us to call the laptop a really powerful machine that meets the standards of 2018-2019. Also, the new Surface has seriously pumped up battery life, which in some cases can reach 14.5 hours. This is one of the best results among laptops in general.

Unlike the filling and the battery, the touch screen was not touched, since it looks great by modern standards. According to the characteristics, this is a 13-inch IPS matrix with a protective coating of Gorilla Glass 3 and an unusually high resolution of 2256x1504. At first, this raises questions (why so many at 13 inches?), But they disappear at the first acquaintance with the laptop and its display. The screen is great in every way.

However, despite the status of "reference", the laptop has not lost a number of problems, some of which have been going on since the first version. The main one is ignoring the existence of USB-C. This is not very good right now, and if you consider that the owner of the laptop will use it for 3-4 years, the lack of USB-C will become an even more pronounced problem.

The second problem is a continuation of the first. The laptop is not just outdated peripherals, it is also damn limited - just one USB port. It is clear that this is a thin and light ultrabook, no one will connect an army of mice, keyboards and smartphones to it. But just one port - what is it anyway?

If you close your eyes to this and buy a USB hub, then the rest of the new Surface will be an excellent premium ultrabook with a catchy design (aluminium with felt texture), a face recognition system, a comfortable backlit working keyboard and many other useful little things.

Apple has long had a tradition - one year they present new breakthrough gadgets in some way, and the next they simply release their improved versions. This also applies to the new MacBook Air, which is an improved version of last year's Air.

The biggest update to the new MacBook Air is the display. If you've used a Retina display, you know what I'm talking about. It's big and bright, with a nice color balance. In terms of numbers, we're talking about upscaling the resolution from 1440x900 to 2560x1600 pixels and doubling the pixel density. As for brightness, contrast and color reproduction, everything is perfect as usual. And the last thing I would like to note about the screen is the disappeared thick frames around it.

Of course, iron has also improved. The new engine of the laptop is a four-threaded Core i5 of the Amber Lake line with reduced power consumption. Paired with it is 8 GB of LPDDR3 RAM (a low-power DDR3 variation) and a fast 265 GB SSD, which is connected directly to the PCI-E bus, thanks to which it has speed performance several times higher than a conventional SSD. All these improvements have made the updated Air much more powerful and faster.

Improvements have affected not only speed - the laptop is now much quieter and cooler, thanks to which the thin aluminium case practically does not heat up. By the way, the body itself looks great and is assembled on a solid top five. Battery life is now 12 hours. Among other branded goodies, it is necessary to note a smart fingerprint scanner and an excellent branded touchpad with Force Touch support and recognition of degrees of pressing force. It is a pleasure to work on it, but then you don’t want to return to the mouse.

In terms of ports, Apple did the same thing it did a couple of years ago - removed everything, leaving only USB-C ports with Thunderbolt support. At the beginning of 2019, this is clearly not the most practical solution, but it is clearly made with an eye to the future, when USB-C becomes the standard, and more people will join the power of Thunderbolt. Whatever you say, the ability to broadcast a video image through the same port, charge a laptop and transfer data at speeds many times higher than conventional USB 3.0 is cool. But this is all in the future, and now we have only 2 free ports and potential fuss with adapters.

HP has seriously thought about how the perfect modern laptop should look like. As a result, they got an extremely interesting ultrabook in a thin and light body that can transform into a tablet.

The laptop's 13-inch touchscreen display is based on an ultra-high-quality UWVA matrix (1920x1080 resolution) and boasts perfect viewing angles, rich colors and high contrast. All this is protected by the notorious Gorilla Glass, well-established in the world of smartphones and tablets.

The aluminium body looks minimalist in a good way, and only the HP logo on the lid reminds of a rich pedigree. It looks and feels 100% premium. Inside the case, we will see a four-threaded Core i5 processor of the Intel Kaby Lake family (operating frequencies 2.8 GHz - 3.9 GHz), 16 GB of DDR4 memory and a high-speed 512 GB SSD drive. As you can see, the filling is productive, but not quite balanced. Still, a chip for 4 cores would not be superfluous. But as a bonus, the user receives a completely silent cooling system.

Other goodies include Bang & Olufsen branded acoustics, a spill-resistant keyboard, and a full security package that includes a fingerprint scanner, a face scanner, a kensington lock, and a TPM security module.

The strengths of this transformer are impressive battery life and support for fast charging. According to the passport HP promises up to 16.5 hours of work.

Against the background of all this, the main disadvantage is the price 2 times higher than the average business ultrabook. Even with the excellent touchscreen display and the ability to turn into a tablet, the price tag of more than 2 thousand dollars seems overpriced.